July was a great month of relaxation with friends and family at the beach in Delaware. My sisters and I worked hard in advance to prepare for daily wear of bathing suits attempting new "life/nutrition" regimes started in May aka "JJ Virgin". We had fun with the comradeship and the discussions of the pro's and con's of no gluten, no dairy, no sugar or sugar substitute, no peanuts, no soy, and no eggs. The results were great and I definitely felt really healthy. Dieting girl absolute - once the 3rd person says, "you look great - you've lost weight", your diet is shot to hell. I promise. It's a dieting hex. Here's another absolute - it was hard, but not impossible to follow the diet on vacation if you pretend booze doesn't have sugar in it. And then, once I dipped my toes into a lobster roll and didn't say, "hold the roll", I fell down the laundry shoot hard and fast and have not been able to get back on the "JJ regime" yet. I need to. I'm about to grow out of all my skinny clothes and that will suck.
Upon return to normal life, I found myself knee deep in being the "most strictest parent in the neighborhood". Vacation felt oh so far away. When it comes to parenting teenagers, this is where I swear, I have no "absolutes". My neighbor whose kids are all out of high school has always warned me against being judgemental when it comes to teenage behavior. I have taken that advice seriously. What is going to happen next, I'm absolutely sure I don't know. I am absolutely sure my teenagers are going to screw up. I pray it isn't life threatening or cause bodily harm to someone else. My senior appears saintly. We will see. She just may be very crafty. My twin boys are sophomores and as my dad predicted not that long ago are much bigger and stronger than me. Here's an absolute - they are not smarter than me. Pools are not open after dark in any neighborhood and if you don't live there you aren't a welcome guest. Keep trying fellas.
As we settle into August, lots of activities keep everyone relatively busy and therefore in general out of trouble. So looking forward to football games and other fall festivities. So looking forward to more family time/visits, weekends with friends, and trying to capture moments and firmly plant them in my memory bank. Just this morning, I walked around looking in purses and on numerous tables and in drawers looking for my reading glasses. I passed myself in a mirror and realized they were firmly planted on my head. I am absolutely freakin old and the short term memory stinks. All I may have left is my long term memory and the ability to fake the rest.
Last night, as I hopefully slid down the laundry shoot of gluten and dairy for the last time in a while, and after a week of trying the new dipped cone at McDonalds and a taste of the new "pretzel bacon cheeseburger" from Wendy's, I decided to try an indoor s'more. Just for the record, if you put marshmellows on a graham cracker for 30 secs in the microwave and then put Hershey bar on top w/graham cracker to hold it all together = yum and yum. Who needs a campfire anyway!!!
Join me in enjoying life, embracing changes in regimes, appreciating life's small moments and knowing when to hold up and fold up. JJ here I come - absolutely for today!
